Google street view cars - all getting a bit sinister

[JamesA]

The google street view camera cars have been down our street!

I can understand them doing main roads so people can use it to find businesses and sites.

We're talking a little back road 3 roads off the main road in a housing area in Peterborough!
There's nothing here.

It's illegal and it's all getting a bit sinister if you ask me.

 

[Richardp]

I want one!

 

[toasty]

It's illegal.

It's not illegal, if you don't like it you can ask to have your house removed. I think it's great!!
Technology is brilliant, and google are brilliant at technology

 

[JohnD]

It's illegal

says who?

 

[JamesA]

Technology is brialliant when it does something, and not when its technology for technology's sake.

Anyway, I'll be asking for my house to be removed as soon as they announce that they're adding these minor cities.

In my opinion, Street View is not illegal in the same way that Phorm and broadband traffic shaping are not illegal.
They're not illegal because a judge said so under pressure from MPs that get nice little consultancy fees from big business.

 

[bhm1712]

whats so sinister about it? its no different than somebody having a drive up and down the street, to have a look at something, only with street view they wont be using a car so the road wont be as busy!

plus, it does do something : if your looking for a purpose for the technology. then think about somebody looking to move house, when they find a house they are interested in, before they go and view they can look at street view and make a quick decision as to whether it looks ok or not, and to see if the area looks nice and clean etc.

 

[seco services]

every streets got one, and todays its you.

wind your neck back in an get back on your perch.

 

[JamesA]

Thanks for the advice.

The advantage at the moment is that you'd notice if people who don't live down your road are going up and down it and whether they looked dodgy or not.

 

[RF Lighting]

Won't it draw attention to your house when it is the only one missing from your street?

 

[Thermo]

yeah, then loads of realy intrested people will come round to spy on you.....and bring their cats too

 

[snico]

Why is it so sinister?

Anyone can drive down any street and its not illegal what Google are doing, in fact I think its excellent!

If you ask for your house to be removed, you might aswell put a huge tarpaulin over your house aswell so people in cars cant see your house!

 

[Steve]

Google streetview rocks.

I only just discovered the "birdseye" views on multimap the other day, where it shows photos at an angle, so you see faces of buildings instead of roofs. This is fascinating, because when you rotate the view of one street, the cars parked have changed because the photos were taken at different times.

I like streetview, looking behind the car as it drives along, watching the irate driver behind tailgating

Apparently streetview car drivers dont know what they are going to be doing until they turn up on day one. They simply respond to an ad for "professional driver"

 

[tim west]

I always thought a "birds eye view" was looking down at roofs?

 

[Richardp]

So! thats sorted that out lets see it then?

 

[ColJack]

the fact of the matter is, now thieves don't even need to scope out your house in person...

they can check the street and see if you have a burglar alarm fitted, beware of the dog sign on the gate, and what level of overlook your neighbours have..
see if you have an old front door.. leave windows open... big bush in the front garden to hide them...

then they zoom out and chose a nice easy get-away route.. or vantage point to wait until you're out..

as said above, at least if they are scoping your street out in person, there's a bigger chance of someone spotting them..

as a side note, someone on the building forum posted a photo of the front of his house which happened to have a street sign on it..
from that and his location in his profile ( and just to freak him out ), it took me about 12 minutes to download GE and find his house, matching it to the visible markers in his photo...